January's Dish of the Month: Spicy Potato Soup

Would you make this soup for my birthday? It's my favorite!
                         --my roommate

You will need:

Dishes: average-sized pot, small skillet, knife, cutting board, peeler, wooden or other large spoon for stirring, average cereal bowl and spoon for measuring. (You may prefer to use standard measuring cups and spoons.)
Ingredients: potatoes (I usually use red), big carrots, onion, chicken bullion cubes or powder, salt, black pepper (preferably from a grinder), cayenne pepper, parsley (preferably fresh), flour, milk, olive oil or butter
Time: About 30 minutes to prepare, 15-30 to sit. Plan to spend an hour.

Note: This soup is super easy, except for the roux which can be a bit tricky. Get that right, and you're fine.
     Fill the pot about 1/3 to 1/2 full of water (about 6 cups), and set on high heat to boil. When the water is warm, add chicken bullion to taste (it should taste the way you like chicken noodle soup to taste). Then while waiting for the water to boil, peel and chop 5-6 medium potatoes and 2 large carrots.
     It's okay to start adding potatoes before the water boils. When the water finally boils, turn heat to low and add the carrots. Add salt to taste. Be careful with the salt, as there may be a lot of salt already in the bullion. After a few minutes, add the black and cayenne peppers to taste, and a little parsley (one cereal spoonful/2 tsp.)
    Now make the roux. Heat 1/2 stick of butter or a few spoonfuls of oil (enough to drown the skillet bottom) in the skillet. Use the lowest heat setting to give you time to chop the onion before the oil gets hot. Peel and chop one small or 1/2 large onion, then saute onion in the skillet on medium heat. While the onion is cooking, fill the cereal bowl 2/3 full of milk and stir 5 heaping spoonfuls of flour into the milk. (I have never used a measuring cup or spoon, but the cereal bowl and spoon have never failed me. However, it is about 1 cup of milk and 4 tablespoons of flour.) Be sure to get all the flour lumps out. When onions are translucent turn the heat to low and stir the milk/flour mixture into the onions. If there is too much onion and not enough liquid to make the roux soupy, add a little more milk right away. Thoroughly warm the roux after adding the milk, but do not let it thicken. Add it to the soup right away. Stir it in thoroughly. The soup should start to thicken after a few minutes.
     If you have fresh parsley, chop it small. Add parsley to taste, and additional pepper or salt if needed. I like to add a lot of pepper and parsley, but I like spicy things. Let sit on lowest possible heat and stir occasionally for about 15 minutes before serving. Serve with your favorite bread.
     Although it tends to thicken some with age, this soup stores well in the fridge up to 4 days. It probably stores well longer than 4 days, but it's always been gone by the fourth day, so that theory remains unproven.

--If you just want regular potato soup, leave out the cayenne, and don't put quite as much black pepper.
--Other seasoning blends that work well in this soup, instead of cayenne pepper: Italian seasoning blend, Greek seasoning blend, garlic, chopped fresh green onion, or all four. :)
--If you discover a tweak that makes this recipe better, please comment!

Bon appetit!